Call me old fashioned, if you like, but after many tries I still go back to my electric percolator as I feel it not only makes great coffee but keeps it hot compared to many of the Mister Coffee type appliances.

Here is how to take care of it:

Your percolator will have a sweet clean interior if you fill it occasionally with hot soapy water & 2 Tablespoons of baking soda, then perk it for 10 minutes. Drain, refill it with hot water & perk 5 minutes more. Rinse well.

Is this cleaning tip with soapy water and soda referring to a CorningWare electric pot also? I hope so. I love my percolator and don't want to have to revert to the drip type again.

After having three die on us within a very short period of time, a friend bought me this one at a thrift store when I mentioned I would love to have a percolator again since our water here kills drip pots. I remembered, when, in the good ole days, how great coffee tasted when brewed in a percolator.

I was thrilled with the fresh taste that drip coffee makers just can't give you.

Over time, of constant use, it is stained and has a black build up in it, and no amount of regular cleaning will remove it. I tried using, like, Efferdent Denture Cleaner as suggested, but it didn't do anything but make the coffee bitter until I could get it all rinsed out. I ended up pouring a whole pot down the drain. Thanks for any feedback on this.

This is great, my perk has been delivering bitter coffee for a while. I am going to try the Cascade. In the interim I have been using a french press, which is quite delicious, but doesn't stay hot very long.

I have a electric percolator that was black at the bottom. I put 2 tbls of Cascade in the basket and ran four cups of water, then I repeated with 8 cups and WALA my perc is like new. Your advice was great. I didn't have to buy a commercial cleaner etc. I then ran clean water through a cycle wiped the inside with a non abrasive pad and have a BRAND NEW Coffee maker.

Somehow the posted remedy did not quite work for me. After I tried putting Eletrasol in the basket and ran water thru the pot a second time, it was not clean. So I tried using Efferdent tablets in the basket. I used 6 tablets with 8 cups of water in my 8-cup Electric Farberware, which may have been an over-kill, but nevertheless 6 tablets did work. The build-up just peeled away and was floating in the pot when it stopped perking. Then I ran another 8 cups of clean water thru, and it was like new - out of the box new!! I just wiped some areas with a damp towel to remove any leftover belmishes and polish it up.

Holy Electrasol! you guys are amazing! I tried the powdered dishwasher cleaner in the basket and I was astounded at the trash that just floated out. I am running a second "brew" now to clean up the last bits. Thank you all so much for your experience!

I have a stainless steel electric percolator. My life has been hectic for the last 3 months with illness in my family. Apparently I made coffee one day and forgot to clean my pot and now it is mildewed. Can anyone tell me how to clean it using natural organic stuff or is it ruined now?

In the coffee/tea business, we use crushed ice to clean out our glass coffee pots. We swirl the ice several times and within a minute or two all clean and any stains gone. Sometimes with a teeny bit of soap, sometimes not. Gets the stains out quick.

Today, I had two brown stained jars to clean but no crushed ice in my home. In 2012, I discovered that crushed glass did the same trick for soy milk stains. Even for old stains. Depending on the amount of stain,it can take up to five or ten minutes of swirling. I put lids on and shook vigorously. These were old stains. All gone. Like new when held to the sun. Need to be careful when using glass rather than ice, of course.

I keep my glass in a jar ready for another use. Contrast colored glass other than the one you are cleaning would be ideal.

This question made me smile as I recalled a series of childhood memories. My folks had one of the old CorningWare electric percolators all through the 60's and 70's and playfully argued about how to clean it for, literally, decades. Dad's parents had a restaurant in the 40's and 50's and dad insisted that a coffee pot should never be cleaned with any kind of soap or cleaner. Mom agreed that the soap might taint the flavor of the coffee, but couldn't stand the thought of never trying to clean her stained coffee pot. So . . .

Without ever telling dad, (and telling me, the oldest, to keep it a secret between us) mom would "brew" a pot of 50% water, 50% white vinegar and probably a tablespoon or so of table salt, dump it out and "brew" another pot of 100% water (to rinse) about once a week. In hindsight, I'm sure dad knew, that mom knew, that dad knew she had done "something", (as he made the occasional pot of coffee) but it was never an issue because there was absolutely no change in the taste of the coffee!

Food for thought as this might work for your percolator. Regardless, thanks for jogging such a simple, fond memory of my long passed parents! :-)

Both KansasCindy and Msburny's suggestions work great! I use vinegar and water to clean mine now but I used to work at a restaurant for extra money now and then when I was young and we would sometimes add a little juice from freshly squeezed lemons to the salt and ice cubes.

Vinegar! Periodically i take pure white vinegar and fill my coffee pot and "brew" a pot of it. Dump out the vinegar and "brew" a couple pots of just plain water to rinse the vinegar out. You'll know when it's rinsed well because the vinegar smell disappears. This works wonderfully.

For daily cleaning I use a vinegar and water mixture I keep in a spray bottle around my kitchen. I simply squirt my coffee pot with this a few times, let sit for a minute and rinse before I make my first pot. My coffee pot is always clean! Remember, vinegar is a disinfectant and is a good non-toxic replacement for bleach.

DIP-IT is for stain removal of a well used perk. You can use vinegar, CLR or even unsweetened koolaid will clean the lime out. The dishwashing detergent is the sink type. As you rinse all dishes you wash, this is the same. Do not use dishwasher detergent as it contains other stronger chemicals that are meant for the machine use, where it is quickly diluted, washed then rinsed.

There is one thing I do every few days. I use a percolator brush to clean the stem where the water/coffee goes through. A percolator brush is a long small brush that will go through the center tube in the pot, using soap and water will remove the oil that collects in the pot. Then I also use white vinegar too to remove the mineral deposits.

There is one thing I do every few days. I use a percolator brush to clean the stem where the water/coffee goes through. A percolator brush is a long small brush that will go through the center tube in the pot, using soap and water will remove the oil that collects in the pot. Then I also use white vinegar too to remove the mineral deposits.

Fill your aluminum percolator with water and add two tablespoons of cream of tartar per quart of water or add one teaspoon of white distilled vinegar per cup of water. Let it perk approximately 10 minutes or until the stains lift. Pour out the mixture and rinse well with water.